Redundancy date moved forward by employer - help please?

Becca22

Hi, hoping some of you knowledgeable people will be able to help with this. At the beginning of the year my work was asking for voluntary redundancy - due to the economic climate they were reducing everyone's hours and I couldn't survive on the little hours they were offering. It's a nursery school so the end of term is third week of July. We were originally told this was the redundancy leaving date but could leave earlier if we found other employment and they would still pay out the redundancy. We've now closed because of the Coronavirus and I've received a redundancy acceptance letter back saying I've got to leave the employment at the end of April. Where do I stand on this as this is not what was originally offered which is why I applied for the redundancy in the first place. Do they have a right to move the date forward without asking me? I thought redundancy dates had to be mutually agreed on. The government has now said about paying businesses to give their employees (who are not working due to Coronovirus) 80% of their wages. I have no other work lined up at present so really need to know legally where I stand. Thank you in advance for your help!

JReacher1

I would discuss the new 80% policy with your employer on Monday. This letter would have been issued before that announcement.